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| why is the US not Metric |
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| TimFox:
"Yes, imperial and customary are a nightmare, because they use different bases, even within the same scale: 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard and 1790 yards in a mile." Reply: the US statute mile is 8 furlongs of 220 yards each, or 1760 yards. |
| Cerebus:
--- Quote from: Zero999 on November 09, 2019, 02:32:36 pm ---There's a reason why we use base 10: humans have ten fingers and it makes it easier for children to learn to count. In many respects, base 6 or 12 would be better, but base 10 is more intuitive. Yes, imperial and customary are a nightmare, because they use different bases, even within the same scale: 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard and 1790 yards in a mile. --- End quote --- Well, if you go back far enough we do have a human number system that had 6 as a basis. The Sumerians (cuneiform) had a number system based on 1, 10 and 60. That's how we ended up with 60 minutes in an hour and probably ultimately why the French call seventy, soixante-dix. (The Babylonians are to blame for there being 7 days in a week.) |
| Cerebus:
--- Quote from: TimFox on November 09, 2019, 03:23:29 pm ---"Yes, imperial and customary are a nightmare, because they use different bases, even within the same scale: 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard and 1790 yards in a mile." Reply: the US statute mile is 8 furlongs of 220 yards each, or 1760 yards. --- End quote --- 8 furlongs, each of 10 chains, each of 4 rods/perches/poles, each of 5 1/2 yards. It's quite easy to get a grip on, and has the advantage that a chain is, as any schoolboy knows, the length of a cricket pitch - thus any Gentleman, or indeed schoolboy, can easily measure such a distance by merely bowling a ball to the customary distance, repeatedly if necessary. Clearly, the demise of the United States began when they choose baseball in stead of cricket, thus depriving the average American man the ability to accurately judge distances without the help of mechanical assistance. |
| rsjsouza:
--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 09, 2019, 03:48:59 pm --- --- Quote from: TimFox on November 09, 2019, 03:23:29 pm ---"Yes, imperial and customary are a nightmare, because they use different bases, even within the same scale: 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard and 1790 yards in a mile." Reply: the US statute mile is 8 furlongs of 220 yards each, or 1760 yards. --- End quote --- 8 furlongs, each of 10 chains, each of 4 rods/perches/poles, each of 5 1/2 yards. It's quite easy to get a grip on, and has the advantage that a chain is, as any schoolboy knows, the length of a cricket pitch - thus any Gentleman, or indeed schoolboy, can easily measure such a distance by merely bowling a ball to the customary distance, repeatedly if necessary. Clearly, the demise of the United States began when they choose baseball in stead of cricket, thus depriving the average American man the ability to accurately judge distances without the help of mechanical assistance. --- End quote --- This made me laugh. Thanks for that! :-+ |
| KL27x:
--- Quote --- I recall getting one question wrong because I had to convert from PSI to lbf/ft^2. --- End quote --- You need to think again, because imperial was not the issue. Unless your mistake was not knowing there are 12 inches in a foot (haha no), you could have made the same kind of mistake converting kg/cm^2 to kg/m^2. "Oh, there are 100 cm in a meter, so it's a 100:1 ratio; we move the decimal point 2 spots to da right..." (And in real life we don't get to look at the multiple choice answers to see which one matches our numbers but with the decimal point off by a couple places and choose that one.) --- Quote --- I think after that I started to convert all US Customary Units immediately to Metric MKS (Metre, Kilogram, Second). Do the maths, then I know I was guaranteed a MSK final result (like Pa/Pascal, N/Newton, J/Joule, W/Watt, etc.) then use the conversion tables to convert what ever the question asked. --- End quote --- You could leave them in w/e units they start in. If they are in imperial, leave them in imperial. But convert all the distance stuff to a single unit. I.e., if your data includes inches and cubits and HarryPotters, convert everything into inches. You are converting all that stuff AND the inches to metric and then back into imperial, for no reason. You could save some conversions, at least. You are this stuck to metric that THIS makes sense to you to do this unnecessary calculation. They're just units man. In the reverse scenario, I have no loyalty to imperial. They could be Papasmurfs/PappaJohns ^3, and I'll do the calculations in those units. I'm not going to convert into imperial then back to w/e. |
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